Chloe blinked back tears she didn't understand, rising slowly to her feet. "You're going to leave me here alone? What if those men come back?"
Jackson reached to his side and pulled out a small, black handgun from a concealed holster. He carefully handed her the handle of the gun.
"You know how to use one of these?" His eyes were dark again and his brows pulled tight. She nodded, unwilling to trust her voice. "Good. Don't unlock that door for anyone but me. I'll be back in a couple of hours."
He moved his hand as though he were going to touch her cheek, stopping as though he thought better of the motion. With a click of the door he hurried out into the night, leaving Chloe staring after him with the gun limp in her hand.
Chapter 16
Jackson hurried back to Fort Baskerville, flashing his ID at the gate guard and then again at the newly placed guard on his building. He barely felt the cold January night settling around him like a heavy winter blanket. Little snow flurries danced in fits across the sky, but there wasn't enough snow to do more than frost the trees and make them sparkle. The poor private had flinched when Jackson growled at him, but held firm to needing to see ID.
He slammed the door to his small office and flung himself into the desk chair, half hoping it would dump him on the ground and give him something to break. The chair creaked, but it held. Jackson ran his fingers through his hair, wishing he had something stashed in the desk to take the edge of his emotions.
He couldn't believe what he had just done. He whined softly into his hands at the mess he had just created. Not only was the beautiful Chloe in danger, he had gone and kissed her. Throwing his uncontrollable emotions into her life was the absolute last thing she needed. If he lost his temper with her, even just once... he was afraid he would kill her. She needed him in her life like she needed a rabid dog.
Yet, he couldn't stop thinking about that kiss. The taste of her lips. The surge of his heart and the joy and hope that filled him. The tingle her skin sent into the very core of his being, lighting a fire that made him hot under the collar. She was smart and kind and had even made him smile and even laugh; something he was sure was never going to happen after Afghanistan.
Jackson lifted his head to look at the picture of Wolf Squad still perched safely up on a stack of boxes. The dead men's eyes looked down on him, their frozen smiles unchanging. He had gotten those men killed.
***
The fear in the sheikh's eyes told him they had just walked into a trap.
"(They made me! They made me!)" the man shouted in Pashto. He pushed his wife against the wall, as if he were trying to keep her away from the windows.
"It's a trap! Get back to the vehicles, quick!" Jackson yelled, motioning his teammates to the door.
That's when Hell started.
Gunfire, explosions, and screams filled the air. There was no escape. The smoke was bitter in Jackson's nostrils and it stung his eyes. He had to get his men out of there. He had known this was a bad idea and now he had to make sure he got them out of there.
"To the back," he commanded and his team worked they way to the rear of the house. Jackson took point, Dearden behind him.
Someone popped out of a house, a big rocket launcher propped on his shoulder. The image was seared into Jackson's mind as the rocket came hurtling toward him. Someone screamed and the world flashed and went dark.
***
He squeezed his eyes shut, the memories of the men screaming searing across his eyes as if he were still standing in that godforsaken hut. He couldn't put her through that. The beast inside of him was just too much of an animal to let it out near her. If he hurt her, he would never forgive himself. He already blamed himself for the death of his squad, but to add her to his death toll was more than he could even bear thinking of.
He needed to find a solution that would get him away from her. A way to keep her safe. He had already stretched his influence to get this position, so transferring wasn't an option. He sighed. Maybe if he could find something on her brother to make her stop looking, those goons with the guns would leave her alone? It didn't solve the problem of how to get himself away from her, but at least it got one of the two dangerous entities in her life away from her. Maybe with a little luck, she would just forget about him once she could focus on her brother.
Jackson pulled the old laptop out of his locked desk drawer. He had changed the lock himself from the standard one it had come with. The computer booted quickly and he sat down logged onto the Department of Defense mainframe to try and find some answers.
He was surprised to find a file on his very first search query. Things weren't usually that easy, but he clicked on it anyway. It was a series of orders for a Blake Madison to be on top secret orders to Afghanistan. As a linguist, it wasn't that strange of an order. But then Jackson looked at the location. The Kandahar district. There was no reason for a low-level Dari linguist to be in a Pashto majority-speaking area. Add on the ease of which he had just found this 'top secret' document, and he smelled something fishy.
He paused, his fingers poised over the keys to type in another search, but he paused. Maybe if Chloe thought that her brother was in Afghanistan, she would give up her search into the Lycan gene. Perhaps, he could even convince her that he was going to go look for her brother. It wouldn't be that difficult to convince the Army shrink that he was 'cured' and ready to go on another mission. He knew a colonel stationed in Kandahar that would be more than happy to have him on his team.
The idea of lying to her made Jackson's stomach twist. He would have to tell her that he didn't think the orders were real, but he hoped that maybe she would believe them anyway. He just wanted her to be safe. More than anything, he wanted her to be safe from the people looking for her and the animal within him.
He typed in a quick search to find more on the men who had attacked them. He couldn't find anything, but that didn't mean much. The only thing he found on the tattoo was a unit named "Phoenix" that had been under the command of Colonel Bronn at one point. They were a rough group, but it probably just meant that a superior officer has tasked the men with getting the girl by any means possible. He'd seen some violent things in the name of state security.
He closed the laptop slowly and put it back in its drawer. For a moment, he considered going back to the motel. His pulse quickened at the prospect of seeing Chloe's face brighten as she opened the door for him. Maybe she would even kiss him, her lips warm against his after the cold of the night air...
He snarled and slammed his hand on the desk. A small dent appeared in the shiny metal surface. Jackson groaned. At least it wasn't hand shaped, but his brand new desk wasn't new anymore.
He couldn't go back to the motel. He shouldn't be with Chloe. She deserved so much better than a broken soldier with nightmares and the strength to break desks. He was dan
gerous and she already had too much danger in her life. He had to figure out a way to get away before he hurt her.